Tennessee judge allows gun control questions to go on Memphis ballot

City council approved proposals risking ire of Republicans threatening to withhold millions in state funding

A Tennessee judge has ruled that three gun control questions can go on the November ballot in Memphis, even as top Republican state leaders have threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in state funding should city leaders put the initiative before voters.

The Daily Memphian reports that Shelby county chancellor Melanie Taylor Jefferson sided with the Memphis city council, which sued the Shelby county election commission last month for refusing to put gun control measures on the ballot.

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Trump campaign publicly claims debate win but aides privately express doubts

Key advisers admit Trump unlikely to have persuaded undecided voters to back him after unconvincing display

Donald Trump’s campaign publicly claimed victory in the debate against Kamala Harris on Tuesday night, but at least some of his aides privately conceded it was unlikely that he persuaded any undecided voters to break for him, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Will tonight benefit us? No, it will not,” one Trump aide said.

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Harris-Trump debate watched by 15m more than Biden clash – as it happened

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Russia has accused both presidential candidates of using Vladimir Putin’s name as part of a domestic political fights, saying: “we really, really don’t like it”.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the US was hostile and negative towards Russia, Reuters reports, and the Kremlin hoped that candidates would drop such references to Putin.

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Harris targets Trump for falsehoods on abortion and immigration in fiery debate

Presidential candidates meet for first time in contentious face-off as moderators fact-check Trump’s statements

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump sparred on Tuesday in a contentious presidential debate that repeatedly went off the rails, as Trump pursued bizarre and often falsehood-ridden tangents about crowd sizes, immigration policy and abortion access.

The Philadelphia debate marked arguably the most significant opportunity for both Harris and Trump since Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race in July, and the event began cordially enough. Harris crossed over to Trump’s podium to shake his hand and introduce herself, an acknowledgement that the two presidential nominees had never met face to face before Tuesday night.

Fact-checking the presidential debate

Harris slams Trump for falsehoods in fiery debate

Taylor Swift endorses Harris in post signed ‘childless cat lady’

‘Maga mad libs’: How the debate played out on social media

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Rally sizes, abortion and eating cats: the Trump and Harris debate – podcast

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2024 US presidential polls tracker: Trump v Harris latest national averages

Find out who’s up and who’s down in the latest US presidential election opinion polls

On 21 July, Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Kamala Harris. This historic move changed the landscape of the election and how many felt about the race. As the election enters its final weeks, Guardian US is averaging national and state polls to see how the two candidates are faring. We will update our averages once a week, or more if there is major news.

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Melania Trump boosts conspiracy theory online about rally shooting

In a video promoting her memoir, she declares ‘we need to uncover the truth’ about assassination attempt on Trump

Former first lady Melania Trump has raised questions around the law enforcement response to the attempted assassination of her husband, in a video she published on Tuesday to promote her new book.

In the 34-second video posted to her X account, Melania begins by describing the attempted assassination on her husband as a “horrible, distressing experience”. And now, she says in the video, which is overlayed with dramatic instrumental music, “the silence around it feels heavy”.

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White Stripes sue Trump over ‘flagrant misappropriation’ of hit song

Band accuse campaign of unauthorised use of Seven Nation Army and seek ‘significant monetary damages’

The White Stripes’ Jack White and Meg White have filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump for what they allege is the “flagrant misappropriation” of a recording of their hit song Seven Nation Army in a campaign video.

In an Instagram post on Monday, Jack White shared the first page of the lawsuit, filed in court in New York, with the caption: “This machine sues fascists.”

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Advisers worry whether ‘happy Trump’ or ‘angry Trump’ will show up to debate

Sources say campaign is concerned that Trump may engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in 2020

Donald Trump’s campaign is most concerned going into the debate against Kamala Harris with the former president’s mood, afraid that the mercurial Trump could engage in the kind of self-sabotage that turned off voters in the 2020 presidential election, according to people familiar with the situation.

The campaign’s internal refrain is whether they get “happy Trump” or “angry Trump”, the people said, as they count down the days to perhaps the final presidential debate this cycle.

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Democrats unite to center reproductive rights as Republicans flail on abortion

Harris campaign seeks to press advantage on powerful motivator, especially in states with abortion on the ballot

As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump prepare to meet on the debate stage in Philadelphia, the battle over abortion rights has vaulted to the center of the 2024 presidential election campaign, the first since the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade.

At the party’s convention last month, Democrats spotlighted the harrowing stories of women placed in medical peril as a result of post-Roe abortion bans in their states. Last week, the Harris campaign launched a 50-stop “reproductive freedom” bus tour across several battleground states, kicking off in Trump’s “back yard”, miles from the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in south Florida.

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Former vice-president Dick Cheney confirms he will vote for Kamala Harris

Lifelong Republican makes announcement day after daughter Liz also endorses Democratic candidate

The former vice-president Dick Cheney, a lifelong Republican, will vote for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris, in November’s presidential election, he said in a statement on Friday.

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said of the former president and Republican nominee. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.

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RFK Jr’s name must be taken off ballots, Michigan and North Carolina courts rule

Rulings upend plans in battleground as nation’s first absentee ballots in presidential contest were set for mailing

Robert F Kennedy Jr’s campaign for president failed – but his campaign to avoid being a spoiler in North Carolina and Michigan appears for the moment to be more successful.

The North Carolina court of appeals made a last-minute decision on Friday to remove Kennedy’s name from presidential ballots, creating a scramble to reprint ballots and begin sending them to voters.

Harris campaign raised $361m in August, triple the amount of Trump campaign

If Trump wins the election, it will doom our efforts to slow climate disaster

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Harris campaign raised $361m in August, triple the amount of Trump campaign

The Trump team raised $130m in same month, with $285m cash in hand compared with Harris’s $404m

Kamala Harris raised triple the amount of her opponent in this election, Donald Trump, last month, in what her campaign claimed was the best grassroots fundraising month in presidential history.

With less than 60 days until the 2024 presidential election, the campaign team for Harris, the Democratic party’s nominee for president, following the departure of US president Joe Biden from his re-election race in July, announced on Friday that it raised $361m in the month of August.

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Liz Cheney, ex-Republican Wyoming representative, endorses Kamala Harris

Daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney is the latest GOP member to publicly renounce ex-president

Liz Cheney, the Republican former representative of Wyoming, has endorsed Kamala Harris for president. The former legislator made the pronouncement on Tuesday at an event at Duke university in North Carolina. This move makes her the latest Republican to publicly say that they will not be supporting Donald Trump.

“I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” Cheney, daughter of former Republican vice-president Dick Cheney, told the crowd. “And as a conservative, as somebody who believes in and cares about the constitution, I have thought deeply about this and the present danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, I am voting for Kamala Harris.”

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Trump-backed Senate candidate caught on tape disparaging Native Americans

Tim Sheehy, locked in tight race with incumbent Democrat John Tester, repeatedly referred to Crow tribe at fundraisers

A Republican candidate in a race that could decide control of the US Senate made disparaging comments about Native Americans at campaign fundraising events, according to recordings disclosed in local media.

Tim Sheehy, a wealthy cattle rancher who has been endorsed by Donald Trump in his bid to become senator for Montana, made the remarks repeatedly at a series of gatherings where he boasted of cultivating ties and bonding with members of the Crow Reservation, the official home of the Indigenous Crow tribe.

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Trump claims ‘no conflict’ during Arlington national cemetery visit – as it happened

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Kamala Harris is expected to announce new proposals meant to boost small businesses and entrepreneurs ahead of a campaign speech on Wednesday in New Hampshire, according to a report.

With days until her first debate with Donald Trump, Harris is aiming to draw a contrast with her Republican opponent’s calls for a lower corporate tax rate, the Washington Post reported, citing sources.

This is a stark choice in front of us, and I’m confident that as voters start to get more engaged in this upcoming election, that they’ll see Kamala Harris’s agenda is about making their lives better, and Donald Trump’s about making Donald Trump’s life better.

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John McCain’s son says he will vote Democrat as he slams Trump Arlington visit

Jimmy McCain, a national guard lieutenant, says he can’t ‘overlook’ Trump’s criticism of his late father

The son of the late Republican senator John McCain – whose war record was disparaged by Donald Trump – has added his voice to criticism of the former president’s controversial Arlington cemetery visit, accusing him of violating a sacred burial site for political purposes.

First Lieutenant Jimmy McCain, an intelligence officer in the 158th infantry regiment of the national guard, said Trump’s behaviour at the cemetery – America’s most revered burial ground for fallen military personnel and military heroes – was in line with previous acts of disrespect.

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Trump and allies plant seeds for ‘chaos and discord’ if he loses, experts warn

Spread of conspiracy theories seeks to foment early election doubts in case Trump loses, some Republicans say

Donald Trump and election denialist allies at Turning Point USA, True the Vote and other Maga stalwarts are spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud in order to lay the groundwork for charging the election was rigged if Trump loses, warn election experts and some veteran Republicans.

The consequences of the strategy could be dire. John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa Arizona who spoke at the Democratic national convention in August in support of Vice-President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency, said that former president Trump and his allies “will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”, if Trump loses.

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Trump shares posts of Gold Star families praising cemetery visit and criticizing Harris

Soldiers’ relatives hit out at vice-president after she said Trump ‘disrespected sacred ground’ for a political stunt

Donald Trump shared statements from the relatives of 13 soldiers killed during the chaotic US evacuation from Kabul as they hit out at Kamala Harris after she criticized the former president’s involvement in a ceremony honoring the service members.

The dispute over the ceremony at Arlington national cemetery, during which Trump campaign aides allegedly shoved a cemetery worker so they could film Trump laying a wreath, contravening rules against political activity at the site, escalated after the vice-president said Saturday that Trump “disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt”.

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Senior adviser rejects rumors of shake-up in Trump campaign leadership

Corey Lewandowski says management will remain despite reports of ex-president ‘feeling superstitious and nostalgic’

Trump campaign senior official Corey Lewandowski has rejected rumors of shake-up in the management of the former president’s election bid, saying the operation’s leadership will not change.

Lewandowski, Trump’s 2016 campaign manager who recently joined the 2024 team, told Fox News Sunday that campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita will remain at the top.

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Democrats seize on Trump cemetery photo op ‘disgrace’ as election issue

Politicians and veterans say episode was on par with ex-president’s history of disrespecting service in armed forces

Democrats are trying to turn Donald Trump’s clash with staff at Arlington National Cemetery, the hallowed final resting place of America’s war dead, into a broader election issue by highlighting it as an example of his history of disrespecting military veterans.

Congressional Democrats with military records and liberal-leaning veterans groups say the episode is consistent with past instances of the Republican presidential nominee flagrantly denigrating service in the armed forces.

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